Yining-Aksu railway to halve travel time

Full-scale construction on a railway linking the cities of Yining and Aksu in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region commenced on June 30. Once completed, both the rail distance and travel time between northern and southern Xinjiang will be halved.

The towering and rugged Tianshan Mountains span east-west across Xinjiang, dividing the region into northern and southern parts. Currently, any train traveling between Yining in northern Xinjiang and Aksu city in southern Xinjiang requires a detour eastward to bypass Urumqi and Turpan, before turning southwest through Korla and finally reaching Aksu. The journey stretches 1,616 kilometers and takes about 16 hours.

According to China Railway Urumqi Group, the Yining-Aksu Railway will span 798 km, of which around 460 km will be newly constructed. It's a single-track, electrified railway designed for both passenger and freight traffic, with a design speed of 160 km per hour. The route connects 22 stations, 18 of which will be newly built.

The route will eliminate the need for a bypass via Turpan, reducing the travel time to about eight hours. It's scheduled to be put into operation by the end of 2032. It will serve as part of China's western border rail network. Early-stage construction began in September 2025, and full-scale groundbreaking took place on June 30, significantly accelerating the project.

Li Quanzhi, deputy director of the engineering management department at the group's Korla construction headquarters, said that the railway will significantly reduce logistics costs, facilitate the outbound transport of local agricultural and livestock specialty products, as well as industrial and mineral goods, and unlock cultural tourism resources.

He added that great emphasis has been placed on ecological protection, with measures such as building bridges instead of embankments, installing noise barriers and reusing treated construction wastewater to minimize the impact on the ecosystem during construction.

Xinjiang has been pushing forward its railway development in recent years, setting records across key indicators. According to the group, Xinjiang's rail network handled 122 million metric tons of freight in the first half of this year, an increase of 4.2 percent year-on-year. Passenger traffic for the same period is expected to reach 26 million, up 2.2 percent.

Outbound coal shipments are estimated to total 49.64 million tons, growing 8.3 percent year-on-year. A total of 18.65 million tons of freight passed border ports in Xinjiang, up 9.2 percent, and the railway network facilitated 9,459 China-Europe and China-Asia freight trains, a year-on-year rise of 6.7 percent.